Connecting doll makers since 1996

First Step in the Storybook Sculpt-a-long

Our first checkpoint is coming up on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, but this is a small one. For the first piece, we just need to decide what we are doing and make our plans. This might be a paragraph, or it might be a sketch, or maybe both. Decide on the character you are making and start thinking about it. Post something as a comment to this post. Let us know what story you are using as inspiration. Please tell us if you are looking for feedback or not.

Starting a piece with a sketch is a great idea. It’s easier to change a sketch than to spend hours sculpting only to realize you don’t like something. If you draw your sketch to scale, you can use it as a tool for laying out your doll.

Between moving away from TAODA / Houston and dealing with my husband’s failing health and death, I temporarily retired from dollmaking. Got active doing things with other people. Now I’m ready to make a doll, so this is perfect timing for me. I have long planned a black companion piece to my white queen “Mistress of the Owl” – even have a box of appropriate fabric and doodads. “Obsidian” has been poking around in my mind for YEARS!! This year she’s going to come into existence and travel to Houston for Pamela Armas’ “Celebration of the Doll” at the Houston Quilt Festival.

The website looks great, Dawn! The schedule looks doable, so I think I’d like to join in the challenge. I thought about it and I’ve been wanting to create some of my favorite childhood stories/memories growing up in Mexico, so for this one I’m going to recreate “Pulgarcito” – Tom Thumb. I’m not very good at sketching but I’ll give it a shot.
Here is my inspiration board:https://www.pinterest.com/claydybugs_hollow_studio/tom-thumb/

Hey Avril, I made my own board and searched for pictures that I liked. I have the pinterest browser extension so when I see a picture I like anywhere I can click “pin it” and save it to the board. Or you can search pinterest itself for pictures that are already there. Does that help?

I really want to get this going to get back into dollmaking. Am not sure how far I’ll get with it, as I have two ideas. One is to do actually 4 characters from the Wizard of Oz. The other is a faery queen from a story I wrote myself about two little elf children and a troll. Since that needs only one character (maybe two since I still have unfinished work on the troll), it may be the one I’ll start with. But I’m going to be severely delayed with doing anything on either of them until after my mother’s funeral next week. She passed away early this morning at two weeks short of age 95. As you can imagine, my attention is elsewhere just now.

I am interested in joining this effort. Please let me know what to do first. I have some ideas percolating and don’t want to miss the deadline. One image that I am considering is a Rabbi with the characteristic hair, hat and book.

I would like to make a Gulliver in Lilliput. I was undecided until now as regards his pose. I also make dollhouses so I had thought to make a Gulliver bending and looking through a window. I have however decided to make Gulliver lying on the ground being bound by the lilliputians. I like the look of his hair tied in little bunches etc.

I’m hoping I can carve time out to work on this so I’m in for now. I started a Knave of Hearts (from the nursery rhyme) several years ago and want to finish him up but since this is a full sculpt-along, I think I’ll do a Queen of Hearts to go along with him.

While the basic idea is from the nursery rhyme, this Queen (and the Knave I need to finish up) are actually going to be based on characters from a version of this story that I’ve been writing/playing with for a few months now.

I am working on Rumpelstiltskin. I am much better at character and elf like than beauty. I will try to post an inspiration board from Pinterest if I can figure out how. I am very excited to get started. I will be working in polymer clay and probably in 1/4 scale. I am used to larger characters.